DeAngelo Dance

MICHI BARALL

(March 2010) Just saw "Rescue Me" by Charles Mee's wife - Michi Barall at the Ohio Theater on Wooster St. - between Spring and Broome - which by the way, will be torn down.

I can see the Mee influence and remember him saying something to the effect........that.... "nothing is new - how it is arranged and presented is a rehash of what already was". I will add, how it is arranged and presented is what makes it new. Someone's perspective can be new, or askew.

Aside from feeling like a high school or college play, I did like the style of it as fractured-fairy tale. Or, deconstructionismistic. But, I felt the piece was contrived. Whether it was in the writing or in the directing I don't know. The actors did not understand the timing, or simpl "timing" , and the way to deliver the humor. Each time they stepped out of the play to comment on something to the audience, or say they missed a cue, or tell the character something contemporary (about the character or himself) they did not believe it. So, we as the audience did not feel it was believable - but that they were just delivering text.

Specific. Fractured has to be specific. There needs to be timing and flow to what seems random and haphazard.

Why did it not feel relevant? Things are relevant when they present or represent something current. There was some pop music; there was some CNN take off moments at the end; there were re-creation of Elvis moments. But it didn't feel current. It felt stuck in an ancient past - that we did no care about. How could we care about the message? What was the message? Maybe that was the main problem, what did the play-write want us to take home with us?

What did I like?
The blue neon on the walls; the blue neon on the staircase upstage through the doorway; some of the idea of the CNN segment; some of the multi-media TV video of the feeling of ocean while talking about it; the deconstructive costumes; the guys first solo (one who did the choreography); and that's about it...

A friend who saw it with me said.....You know, it's hard to understand why she copied him (Mee) even to the point of offering sickenly sweet snacks. When he did that, it was at least related to the content. Another thought: Mee comments on contemporary culture and provides fresh ways to look at it; it's a culture that he knows. She on the other hand is transplanting onto a foreign culture and ancient society modern-day attitudes and styles in a way that just makes it a cheap, gimicky trick. I think your comment "self indulgent" was right-on.
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